Aus group buying technology gets SingTel funding

The technology platform behind Australian group-buying player Spreets has secured AU$5m in funding led by SingTel Group's corporate venture capital, SingTel Innov8.

Dealised, an Australian-developed group-buying backend technology platform, has also attracted Series A funding from Yuuwa Capital, an Australian-based venture capital firm, and was launched with the help of ubiquitous technology incubator Pollenizer.

Dealised will use the funding to expand globally from its regional Asian headquarters in Singapore.

The company has appointed well-known mobile industry executive Jonathan Marchbank to lead the global expansion drive as CEO.

Marchbank has been COO of Virgin US, CEO for Virgin Mobile in Asia and in Australia, and previously held executive roles at Telstra and Nokia.

"Idealised partners in Australia and Scandinavia have already beaten Groupon and Living Social; our partners now dominate their respective market," Marchbank said. "With our platform, partners quickly create and manage regular offers for their customers, maintaining revenue and relationships at risk from Groupon-like clones. We are busy repeating that successful formula in other markets."

The Dealised board already features some high profile digital and technology heavyweights, including chairman Tony Faure, the founder of Yahoo! Australia & NZ, and former CEO of ninemsn; Phil Morle, director and co-founder and the former CTO of Kazaa, and also current co-founder of Pollenizer; former Sausage Software executive director Adrian Van Zyl; and co-founder and VP Europe Christian Lindstrom, who was formerly global director of business development at Joost.

Marchbank added that mobile would be a big focus for the start-up, especially in Asia. "Our operations in Singapore, as the business hub for Asia, are where we will focus on mobile growth," he said.

The plug-and-play platform provides front end and back end support and documentation. It has powered the group-buying platforms of Spreets in Australia and New Zealand and Sweetdeal in Norway and Denmark. Dealised offers one licensee per vertical, per geography of its technology.

The company is currently working with several UK-based clients including The Daily Telegraph, media owners Mecom in Scandinavia and with media firms, mobile operators, retailers in Australia, New Zealand, the Middle East and the US. ®